The Beginnings of Muscle Gain
Any stimulus helps you gain muscle quickly in the beginning, as long as you rest and eat moderately well. Muscle is built by sleeping and eating, not at the gym. But after this stage of adaptation of your body to lifting weights, the process of muscle gain slows down and even stops, reaching that point of dreaded stagnation. In this article, you will learn how to overcome that stage and get back on track.
Clarifications on Muscle Mass Gain
Before starting to reveal the keys to how to gain muscle mass, I want to make clear some points that I think are important to highlight.
Diet is Key to Increasing Muscle Mass
You can do the best hypertrophy routine at the gym, but if you don't take care and control your diet, you are condemned to eternal stagnation. A good diet is a fundamental factor to increase muscle mass and lose fat. So make sure you have a good protein intake and a controlled caloric surplus.
Gaining Muscle is Not a Quick Process
Gaining muscle mass quickly is not possible. All this requires a time of adaptation and change. You are going to have to be very patient and constant if you want to see the results you expect.
More Training Doesn’t Mean More Muscle Gains
Many people make this mistake. A lot. The trick is not quantity, but quality. In most cases, the problem is that there is too much training and minimal recovery, the muscle does not have time to recover from training and you can even take a step back. Therefore, more is not better.
There is No Magic Supplement That Makes Muscles Grow
There are no supplements, no shakes, no magic foods that will make your muscles grow overnight, or maximize results. If someone tries to sell you this, they're ripping you off. Don't spend your money foolishly.
How to Gain Muscle in the Gym or at Home
Your muscles grow while you sleep, not at the gym. But what can be done at the gym is to maximize the break of muscle fibers.
Increase Time Under Tension
One of the main ways to gain muscle mass is to increase the time under tension. We can do two things to increase the time under tension: either we increase the number of repetitions or we increase the time in which we perform the repetitions.
More Intensity in Your Training Will Make You Gain Muscle
Another way, and one of the most important, in the face of hypertrophy and also fat loss is to increase the intensity of training. To make your workouts more intense and start gaining muscle volume, there are several methods:
- Do supersets, trisets, drop sets, etc.
- Increase the weight with which you perform the exercises.
- Increase the time under tension.
- Shorten the rest time between sets or between exercises.
- Base your training on multi-articular exercises (bench press, squats, pull-ups, deadlifts...).
Improve Technique to Gain Hypertrophy
The technique of the exercises, the way they are performed, is crucial for optimal muscle development to occur. In addition to doing the exercises correctly and with a full range of motion, you will avoid injuries.
Progressive Overload
This is very important, it means, in an easy and simple way, to increase the weight in each exercise. If you go up in weight, you get stronger, your muscles grow, and you can keep lifting more weight. This is an incredible muscle gain loop.
Conclusion
In summary, to build muscle you will need to increase the time your muscles are under tension, add more intensity to your training, improve your technique and progressively increase the weight you lift.